Moment by Moment Cross Pt 2

…there is one thing that God will never bend on, and that one thing is faith!  He will become a man to get my attention, He will overlook my sins, He will show me great compassion and mercy, but He will not do away with His demand for faith.  I didn’t realize it, but what I was saying to God was, “If I experience Christ as my life, if I experience the crucifixion of my old self, if all my feelings of inferiority go away, then I will believe what you say.”  I was an unbelieving believer.  Finally I said, “Lord, if I live in defeat all my life and never sense freedom from inferiority and failure, I will still believe that my old self has been crucified.  I have received Christ’s life, and all that is true of Him is now true of me!”  Not long after that, experience followed faith.

It is amazing how specific Scripture is in telling us what God thinks about faith, what faith is, and how we get more faith…and yet, Christianity suffers from lives lived without faith.  Unbelieving Believer…what a testimony.  What a hindrance to receiving what God has provided for His kids.

Gripping truth #1 – “God will not do away with His demand for faith.” 

     “The just shall live by faith” is not a suggestion.  “According to thy faith…” is not a “maybe.”  Hebrews ch.11 is not a testimony of some strange group of outsiders in Christianity.  (Perhaps “unusual,” but not an extra option.).  “Without faith it is impossible to please God” is a standard of life for a Christian that all of us must recognize and desire to participate in.

Gripping truth #2 – “ ‘I will still believe that my old self has been crucified.  I have received Christ’s life, and all that is true of Him is now true of me!’  Not long after that, experience followed faith.”

     It is a harbinger of life as a Christian to know that “experience follows faith.”  Oh that we could believe this, and know our lack of experiencing is tied to our lack of faith.

But, thank the Lord, there is always HOPE, for the One who lived His entire life BY FAITH now lives inside every Believer and IS each Believer’s actual LIFE.  May we learn to abandon SELF to HIM and see HIM bring all that we have been looking for (and far too often trying to “work for” when it has been impossible to attain by our efforts).